It's time we stop blaming Washington for just doing what they're told. This is a democracy - blame the voters. Voters talk a big game about the budget, but they balk at any change that makes any impact on their lives in any way.

You can't blame voters if they're not given the option. I would elect myself as president and people would vote for me if they only knew my policies. It's the same with the bipartisan system - they only bring up non-issues and get elected anyways. You're not given much choice at all in a democracy, otherwise you would have 30+ candidates and equal coverage for each of them. People in general are apathetic or ignorant with regards to politics - myself included.

Libertad, we do not live in a true democracy, we are a democratic republic. Having 30 different candidates in 30 different parties with all equal time is part of how the Nazi party came into power. With that many candidates the popular vote would get watered down so much that a party could aid with less than 20% of the votes. It gives to large of room for error. Other than that I agree with what Biggfredd said, they want to spend our money and not save us any. All politicians are in it for the money and that is our fundamental flaw I think. No more honorable men run, or ar allowed to run for the big office any longer.

That makes seven recommendations over the past 22 years to make the switch because of serious cost savings involved.

Seven!

And there were several more in the twenty years before that.

In the article it said that they addressed 115 of the 145 recommendations proposed last year. OK they addressed them. How many were actually adopted? "Addressing" them or looking at them or studying them doesn't mean much. Implementing them means something.

I finally read the GAO report, yes I am a geek for these things. The GAO does excellent work, and this one is no exception. However the case they give is by no means a slam dunk.

Yes converting to coins will save the government money, but not until after 10 years. The first four years will see increased spending as in teased coin production will be needed to replace the bill. Also the savings will not be due to lower production costs, but only from increased seigniorage (it takes 1.5 coined to replace 1 bill).

Finally the report does not attempt to quantify the cost to society a change would cause. They might be small but could be enormous.

I'm not against replacing the dollar bill, it may be in the long run a lot better. But it is not a simple decision.

I personally would love to see dollar coins completely replace the dollar bills. Paper $2, $5, $10, $20, and $100 bills are fine but the dollar should be a coin in my opinion. Shifting ANYTHING out of the hands of the Federal Reserve is a good move in my opinion.

Quote:Yes converting to coins will save the government money, but not until after 10 years.

It would not take 10 years though. The Mint could easily make a billion dollar coins each year. They made 940,870,000, in 2007, so I bet they could do more, if demand requested it.

Plus for 2010, they printed 1,856,000,000, $1 notes and 95% of notes printed are to replace existing ones. So really they only need to print 92,800,000 $1 notes for increased demand. A very small # for the US Mint to handle each year.http://www.moneyfactory.gov/uscurre...figures.html

Quote:During Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing delivered approximately 5.8 billion notes at an average cost of 9.1 cents per note.

And I bet that 9.1 cents includes the cost of the $100 note, which is more expensive to make than the dollar note. I think I read somewhere that it is about 6 cents for the dollar note. I just couldn't find it.

And the dollar coin costs 18 cents to make.

Since the dollar coin costs triple what a dollar note costs, in about 3 years, there would be a profit.

It could easily happen next year. The US Mint already has the machines in place for it to happen. We just need the government to make the decision.

Right--let's stop the $1 coin experiment--and put it into actual practice; retire the $1 note already! It's about time to heed the well-reasoned pragmatism of the GAO's (7) reports. I have not done all the calculations, but I can only guess that since coins don't wear out too quickly, it wouldn't take many years to get the coins up to the needs of commerce. And don't make the coin "collectible"--but utilitarian, so people "get" they're meant to be used.

At the risk of sounding like a monetary heretic, the USA should review the currency approaches done by its neighbors regarding downsizing coins and eliminating the 1/100 unit (ie our cent). This is really a no-brainer--imo.

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